William Tyrrell: Frank Abbott’s phone conversations with a priest revealed

The coroner investigating the disappearance of William Tyrrell has released an extraordinary trove of evidence – including never-before-seen photos and transcripts of a recent person of interest’s candid phone conversations.

The bombshell documents released by the coroner on Tuesday largely relate to two persons-of-interest: Paul Savage, a neighbour of William’s foster gandmother, and convicted paedophile Frank Abbott.

Savage is the man who former detective Gary Jubelin was found by a court to have illegally wiretapped.

Abbott is a convicted paedophile who was arrested in jail for questioning last year but was never charged, but has increasingly been in the sights of investigators.

The evidence includes lengthy transcripts of phone conversations Abbott had with his priest friend, Martin Parish, on the phone from prison. 

Phone conversations between person of interest Frank Abbott and his friend Martin Parish were among the 

In the conversations, Abbott, said police had hauled him from his cell last November and told him ‘they said they found a umm … Spiderman suit and kids clothes or something’.

Abbott said the suit claim was ‘garbage’ and just police trying to ‘frighten’ him into confessing. 

‘They said we got all this evidence and all that,’ Abbott told his friend in recorded calls over the next few days.

‘And I said “well if you got it why aren’t you charging me instead of coming to question me all the time.”

Other evidence published today includes:

• An investigative note from police produced this year claiming William Tyrrell’s male foster carer had ‘ignored advice’ from police to remain at William’s foster grandmother’s house during the search. He was seen by Senior Constable Rowley on the nearby fire trail, the note alleged
• A picture showing the white spider pattern on William’s back which was kept secret as a ‘tell’ to detectives for years 
• A detective expressing concerns that a witness who claimed to have seen a woman driving away with William Tyrrell on the day he vanished, Ron Chapman, had failed could not recall that he had family staying with him the night before and morning WIlliam disappeared 
• Police interviews with Mr Savage and a transcript of a walkthrough of the area outside his home 

During their investigation of Savage, police placed a Spiderman suit (above) on the Kendall local’s walking track

The investigation into Frank Abbott

In the extraordinary transcripts of Abbott, he is quoted saying that the police ‘talked to me for 10 minutes asking me questions like if you plead guilty and that now we can help you and all that and Martin (Parish) will forgive you now.

‘I said what, for something I didn’t do?’

His friend Parish fumed, ‘so it’s okay for them to lie to you and tell you lies?’ and accused police of trying to ‘trick’ Abbott. 

The transcripts were released on Tuesday after police last month dug up bushland near where Abbott lived in 2014, in Herons Creek, on the state’s mid-north coast. 

The inquest has heard that prior to his death, a friend of Abbott’s, Ray Porter, tearfully confessed to a nurse before his death that he had given William and his ‘best mate’ a lift.    

Both Mr Savage and Mr Abbott have vehemently denied any role in Tyrrell’s disappearance. 

Counsel assisting the coroner Gerard Craddock has said there are ‘hundreds’ of persons of interest in the Tyrrell investigation, and the fact someone is a person of interest does not make them a suspect.  

If he is still alive, William Tyrrell would have turned nine-years-old last month. The inquest resumes later this year.